Slithering python in Brookfield saved by snake lover

BROOKFIELD — Police are looking for the owner of a ball python found slithering along on Quaboag Street late Tuesday afternoon.

"It was found by a female who is very familiar with snakes," Police Chief Michael Blanchard said. He said the woman picked up the snake after spotting it from her car and later alerted police.

The woman was concerned because pythons, like most snakes, require special care and a warn climate, and a python outdoors here would not have survived cooler temperatures, the chief explained.

"They are common pets and they're legal to keep. They don't get very large," he said.

Ball pythons come from areas near the Sahara Desert in Africa, according to Virginia Reptile Rescue. They are generally docile and do not bite very often, the rescue's website says. Most that are kept as pets are bred in captivity.

Their diet in captivity is generally one or two adult mice per week and their cages should be kept quite warm— 90 to 100 degrees — on one end for basking. Ball pythons thrive in high humidity.

Chief Blanchard said someone who was keeping the snake as a pet may simply have grown tired of it and discarded it near the lake, not far from the East Brookfield town line.

Pythons also have a reputation for being skilled escape artists, so it's possible someone is missing the snake for that reason.

Anyone with information about the snake may post a message on the Brookfield Police Department's Facebook page, or call police on their non-emergency line at (508) 867-5570. A snake rescue organization will take the python if it is not claimed by its owners.

Contact Kim Ring at kring@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @kimmring